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cccvtm20 · 7 years

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The first of many fateful nights: Live Session #1 Part 1

The night is January 5th, 2007. A Friday. It’s quiet on the streets of Cardiff, the local population subdued by the freezing wintery conditions.

However, six people have made the journey to the Vaykov and Tahbold Venture Tower, more commonly referred to as the VT. Each of them received invitations, elegant sloped writing on a thick satiny card embossed with gold. The invitations are for a meeting with the Prince of Cardiff.

The small group enters the lobby, the glass windows reflecting their backs as they come through the revolving door. The room has a modern sleek design, with a security checkpoint to the right, and an exit way on the left. Two guards, in navy uniforms and armed with batons and tasers, stand on either side of the main entrance, caps low over their eyes.

The motley group approach the wide receptionist desk, where a young woman in her early thirties is seated in front of her computer. The name Melanie is printed in bold capital letters on a shiny gold name badge. Her straight golden blonde hair just barely brushes the fabric of her crisp white business shirt, and she looks up to smile at the group of strangers, asking cheerily how she can be of assistance. When they move forward to show her the invitations, she recognises them immediately and hand each person, except for one, a security pass. Three of the group don’t receive passes, and are informed that without an invitation, they must wait in the lobby. The group separates, three people remaining, and six heading to the right to pass through a security entrance. There is a guard at the checkpoint, looking bored and not very concerned with his work. As the group of six moves toward security, they hear Melanie make a call to Mr. Jorgensen, announcing the guests have arrived and will be ready for collection shortly.

At the security, the guard takes several weapons from the group as they pass through, and confiscates an unusually large amount of ballpoint pens from one of the guests – placing them into a box and labelled ‘contraband’. The guests do no argue about having to turn over their weapons.

The three who remained in the lobby moved to a waiting area where they were seated for the duration of the upcoming meeting. Of those three, one was a woman with long, red, tied back hair who was dressed in a pant-suit and comfortable shoes. She pulled out a large diary and several notes and used the time to catch up on her work – her name is Isla. Her partner, a man also dressed in business attire and along coat, sat down beside her, and meditated – this is Yasou. As he is sat down, the movement of the coat revealed a concealed sword. The third remaining person was dressed casually, but neatly. He used the time to observe the surroundings and the other two – his name is Kenneth.

Meanwhile, as the main group passes through security, they are met by a strong looking man dressed in a long dark coat and obviously armed. His large brow and brooding face with square jaw project an aura of a man who takes everything very seriously, and does not tolerate nonsense. He “greets” the group gruffly, and orders them into the elevator. However, it’s a tight fit and two of the group choose to ride in a separate elevator.

In the first elevator, with who is presumed to be Mr. Jorgensen, are 3 men and 1 woman. Most notably, the woman was the one who had the unusually large number of ballpoint pens. This is Rin Akihara, a Malkavian, and therefore crazy. Rin who is of Japanese descent, has medium length dark hair, that is tangled and knotted, as if she has just gotten out of bed… several days in a row. She is also wearing pajamas, fluffy red slippers, sunglasses, and a cape to complete the ensemble. Alongside her is man wearing a long sleeved white business shirt, a beige vest, and grey slacks. His light brown dishwasher hair is cut short, he is wearing glasses, and has pristine white gloves. This is a Grimbald, Tremere with a cool and detached expression who is observing the other group members carefully. His Ghoul, Kenneth, waits for him downstairs, and acts as a servant devoted to his master.

The third person is dressed in neat casual, a light blue, long sleeved business shirt, with the top few buttons undone. He is a Toreador with light blonde hair and wears glasses. His name is Ulysses, and his posture and demeanour are slightly nervous, he is hiding it as best he can.

The final person in the lift is a dark-haired man in a black suit, who has spoken only briefly but with a strong accent. The impression is quite clearly that of a gangster – a member of the notorious Giovanni clan which maintained a tenuous truce with the Camarilla within Cardiff.

In the second elevator are two Ventrue, Elain and Hector Kass. Elain is a local vampire, with several connections in both mortal and immortal society. She’s a Welsh woman, with dark red hair tied back in a bun, and wearing a neat pant suit that is immaculately pressed. Her companion is a visitor from Hong Kong, dressed in a formal business suit. Yasou and Isla are his two ghouls, a bodyguard and personal assistant respectively. Hector and Elain ride the elevator in comfortable silence.

Reaching the top, Mr. Jorgensen, who some of the group recognise to be the Sheriff, leads the assembled vampires down a corridor. The plaster walls are painted in a light beige and are undecorated. They walk past several doorways and windows into the officer. All the dark wooden doors are closed, some of the doors have dull golden name plaques. Each of the windows that peer into the offices have the blinds down and shuttered. Eventually they come to the end of the corridor, which now gives the option of turning right to a meeting room, or left where the corridor extends out to many more office and meeting spaces.

The Sheriff, Mr. Jorgensen, turns right and strides over to the double doors, each one with a tiny gold plaque labelled “Meeting Room 14.1”.

Upon entering the room, they see that it is set up as a very informal meeting area. Two rows of comfortable, plush armchairs are facing each other, with a rectangular, dark, wooden coffee table in between. At the head, facing toward the two rows and coffee table, is a large throne-like seat, with dark violet brocade accented with grey, and gold detailing on the wooden arms and legs. Each of the individuals seat themselves in an armchair, Rin Akihara making the strange move to nibble on the corner of one before snuggling into the seat with her feet up. The Sheriff moves to stand on the left-hand side of the throne-like seat.

They are not seated for long before a side door opens, and in enters a woman flanked by an elderly gentleman. The woman, in her late 30’s, has short platinum hair cut into a neat bob. Her eyes are a startling blue, and her facial features sharp and aristocratic, practically shark-like with how predatory she appears. She’s wearing a tight fitting and knee length black dress, with short sleeves and fluffy white fox fur lining across the neckline. Her companion, the elderly man, is small and hunched over with greying hair. He wearing a blue and white checkered shirt tucked into some sark grey slacks, with bright red suspenders. Large, round, and thick glasses perch on the end of his note, giving the impression of large bug eyes – almost comical in its effect. He’s holding a laptop and has general aura of nervous energy and skittishness.

Most of the group rises when the woman enters, although Rin seems perfectly comfortable in their chairs. She received nods of acknowledgement, but Ulysses steps forward to greet her more formally, gently kissing the air above her knuckles. Charmed by the gesture she smiles and returns the greeting formally. She then bids her guests to sit down, and seater herself in the elaborate arm chair. The elderly man stands on the right hand side of the elaborate seat as she begins her introduction.

Her speech is short. She introduces herself as Lucia Vorhis, the Prince of Cardiff, and continues on to state that the city is a one united, big, happy family. She tells the group that as newcomers (each in their own way, either as visitors or neonates who have graduated from being fledglings) and members of the “family” they must do their parts, so she asks them to go question someone named Miles Wegmen in relation to someone named Emilian. Directing any further questions to her Seneschal, Jules Serault, she leaves the room through the side door.

Upon her departure, Jules Serault, the Seneschal, takes her vacated seat, and sets his laptop down the coffee table. Hunching over, he opens up the lid and begins typing furiously. Coming to correct information, he stumbles and stutters his way through the brief, mispronouncing the street Miles Wegmen lives on, and generally being rather repetitive. When asked about Emilian, he deflects the question, telling the group he is nothing for them to be concerned about, and that Miles Wegmen probably doesn’t know anything, but it’s best to check these things anyway. It seems this Emilian fellow has been involved in some unspecified disturbances.

Jules tell the group that meeting room 14.6 has been designated for their use, and that without further ado, he must also leave – which he does. The Sheriff then guides the group to where room 14.6 is located (down the hall), and leaves.

The groups enters the room, a normal office meeting room with leather wheelie chairs, a long desk, and a computer/projector set-up. Deciding that they know nothing about Miles Wegmen, they each consult whatever contacts they have within the city. No one know much about Miles… until Elain manages to reach a friend who is familiar with him. From her contact, Elain discovers Miles is a vampire (the reason the other more mundane contacts were not helpful), and that he’s into some “weird and creepy stuff”. Getting the exact address from her contact, Elain informs her forced accomplices, and they head of an apartment on the north-eastern side of town.

Splitting the group between three vehicles, they end up in a run-down neighbourhood. Entering the building that houses Mile’s flat, the group moves up several floors – moving past some junkies taking a trip on the stairwell. Arriving at Mile’s flat, they find the door ajar and push it open, revealing a clean, modern, and well-furnished flat at odds with the exterior.

Entering the living and kitchen area, they spot two more doors, one behind them and one to the forward right. Elain and Hector move to the door directly to their right, leading backward (the joys of a corner apartment), while Isla and Rin move the investigate the door on the right on the far end of the room. Ulysses, Grimbald, Eddie, Yasou, and Kenneth remain in the living space to explore.

When they open the door, Elain and Hector discover the bedroom… and the pungent smell of vampiric vitae. Miles Wegman is nothing more than ash and blood soaking into a shaggy rug. Looking around the room, Elain finds several phone numbers written on slips of paper on the desk, all of them female. In the drawers of the desk is a black address book (detailed notes on numerous young, teenage girls), and wad of cash inside an envelope, the word “payment” scrawled across the front in messy handwriting. Meanwhile, Hector is consulting the laptop, finding an email referring to a girl named Mandy, and that payment would be as usual.

As Isla and Rin enter the bathroom, they find some photographs on the sink, a young girl, no more than 16 or 17, with bright eyes, golden hair and skin, dressed in a school uniform. She’s happy and bright, and on the back of the photograph the name “Mandy Thomas” is written in neat handwriting. Isla, on the other hand, has spotted something strange about the vents and the corners of the room.

Back in the living room, Grimbald has moved forward to investigate what lies on the coffee table, but trips on the rug, crashing into the table and sending the contents spilling on the floor. His butler, Kenneth, rights the table and places all the items back onto the surface – fliers for various nightclubs and locations, the most recent one being an advertisement for a special event at The Jazz Lounge. Ulysses notices a flashing light on the landline, a message waiting to be received. Playing the message, they all hear the voice of a young woman, proclaiming her name to be Mandy. She mentions what a ‘great time’ she had ‘the other night’ and how she would love to meet up soon, maybe tomorrow. The message was left earlier than evening. Other than that, there was nothing more in the room, except for when they noticed the blood on the door that leads back out into the hall… human blood.

They all convene to discuss their findings, and Hector goes to investigate the strange features that Isla noticed. There are cameras hidden in the vents, and wireless cameras mounted in the corners and covered in plaster, as if someone had tried to conceal them rather than take them down. Concerned, Hector goes back to the laptop and does a thorough search of personal files – finally finding several videos of teenage girls bathing in the bathroom. He begins to copy the files over to a personal data storage device. In the meantime, Rin went back downstairs to talk with the junkies on the stairwell, who claimed that young blonde woman had visited the apartment (the golden girl, they called her), and then left rather angrily. Later, a young male visited, who the junkies described as merely “some ugly guy”, and left shortly thereafter. Having promised the junkies, the tv from Mile’s apartment, Rin headed back up to the group.

They were arguing. Some members insisted that they should go find Emilian, while others questioned if it was Mandy that had visited earlier that evening – especially since even before that she had left a message asking to meet up the next day. However, finding Miles Wegmen dead also meant that they had fulfilled their purpose, argued Eddie, and that there was no more to be done and it would be best to report back. Arguing over the issues, they eventually decided to split into two group. One group to investigate Mandy Thompson – whose address was listed in the little black notebook – and the other group to reach out to a potential contact that would know more. Finding out a good place to meet the Informer would be hard, but with a little manipulation a contact was willing to spill the beans on a place where there would be a good chance to find him.

Rin, Isla, Yasou, Hector, and Elain all headed out the meet with the Informer. They arrived in the industrial area of the city, east of the centre, and go out the back of a cola factory. There they find a marked man hole, leading down into the sewer / rainwater system. Rin and Isla enter the tunnel and wait to see if they can find the Informer. Along the sides of the wall, shelves have been constructed, a variety of soft and plastic toys are lined up. Rin decides to re-arrange these based on cotton content, and Isla waits, tapping her foot. Up top, Hector, Yasou, and Elain keep an eye out, observing the nearby factories and night-time security. After an hour, Rin decides to simply leave a note for the Informer (paper and pen kindly provided by the ever-prepared Isla), along with her red slippers. During that time Elain received a message from Ulysses, updating them on their finding and informing them to meet at a nearby abandoned warehouse.

Eddie, Ulysses, Grimbald, and Kenneth all headed to check up on Mandy Thompson. They travelled to an eastern neighbourhood that was narrow multi-storied homes, packed together but overall firmly middle class family homes. Upon arriving at the home, they were greeted with a two-story artisan home, with a front porch and leafy tree’s in the alley on the left. As they scoped out and approached the home, one of the trees rustled… and a teenage boy jumped out from the tree. With slicked back hair, a long black leather trench coat two sizes too large, jeans, ripped shirt, and combat shoes, he looked like a bad cosplay of Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Furthermore, he brandished a stake at small group – proclaiming his knowledge of vampires and enraged at the idea that one was doing something to poor, pure, innocent Mandy. The boy, obviously an obsessed stalker, rushed at Eddie, claiming he would kill him just as he had killed Miles. Eddie was having none of this boys nonsense was quick to deliver a knock-out punch to the boy, and tied him for later questioning, storing the unconscious youth in his boot.

Grimbald scoped the side of his house, and sent his butler Kenneth inside to investigate the occupants. Kenneth picked the locked of the back door, and squeezed into the modest house, creeping quietly up the creaky stairs. Peeking into the first room by the landing he found two adults asleep – Mandy’s parents, and then stealthily made his way down the hall, passing an open bathroom and easing open the door to another bedroom. There slept Mandy, surrounded by posters of favourite boy bands and celebrities, and a vanity littered with photograohs of her and friend. Mandy herself slept on a twin bed, sprawled out and snoring. Kenneth carefully snooped around her room, Mandy remaining asleep through the rustling of paper. Finding her diary, Kenneth flicked through the most recent entries, which detailed the usual trivialities of teenage life – liked and dislikes boys, teachers, and general drama. However, the most recent entries featured her meeting a wonderful man at a night club that she had managed to sneek into, and how he was promising her a future career as a model, something she had dreamed of for several years. Deciding not to risk waking Mandy up by powering up her laptop, Kenneth instead eased the whole item off the table and made his way out of the house. The stairs creaked louder than before, with the added weight of the large laptop, but no one in the house awakened to the night-time intrusion. Returning to the others, Kenneth informed them of Mandy’s ongoing good health, and the group decided to head off to a abandoned warehouse that Eddie knew of… somewhere they could question the teenage boy in private.

Upon arrival the two groups met up, entering an abandoned warehouse with high scaffolding and a catwalk where equipment had once been set up. The teenage boy had been awake when Eddie had opened the boot, and had voided his bowels into his pants – creating a disgusting smell. Rin attempted to measure her feet against those of the boy, as she needed shoes, but his struggled made it too difficult. Eddie gave him an extra punch for the sake of intimidation. Once the boy was tied up, Eddie and Grimbald began an enthusiastic discussion on torture, while the boy turned white from terror. Ulysses made his discomfort known, and said he would be stepping out if they were to proceed with this course of action. Elain intervened by adding that there were alternate ways of getting answers from the boy, and Hector stepped forward to offer his services. Looking deep into the boys he eyes he gave him a command – “Answer our questions and speak only the truth.”

He fought against the compulsion, but it was no use. Each member questioned the boy, revealing that his name is Bernie, and that he has followed Mandy and Miles at one time to find out where he lived. He had then confronted Miles, who had laughed in his face and turned his back, giving Bernie the perfect opportunity to strike at his back with a paralysing stake. Seeing how the vampire was not ash, and glaring up at him impressively, Bernie had dragged the body to the bedroom and used a knife from the kitchen to decapitate Miles, leaving nothing but blood and ash in his wake and cutting himself accidentally in the process. Done with his deed, Bernie left the scene and returned to home of Mandy Thompson to watch over her and protect her from any other vampires seeking to soil her purity. When Elain asked him how he had known about vampires at all, let alone how they killed them, Miles related to them the knowledge contained within the website howtoIDvampires.net. Regarding Emilian, Bernie knew nothing, having never heard of the person before.

Finding out all that they could, the group took Bernie back with them to the VT Tower and turned him over to the Sheriff, giving him a full report of their activities that night. The Sheriff had Bernie taken into custody, and accepted the report with only a few questions. As for the reward, he pointed them in the direction of the Seneschal, who awarded each of them with golden coins, muttering something about worthless paper and plastic. He then told them that Melanie would take care of the rest. Down at reception, the group exchanged their coins for a direct transfer of £2,500.

Rin, having left her slippers as a gift for the informer, asked Melanie if she had any shoes to wear. Calling over a guard, Melanie sent him to her locker to get a pair of sneakers. When the guard came back, he was holding pair of pink sneakers which Melanie kindly donated to Rin seeing as she had never has any time to go jogging anyway, and it would be best for them to be put to use. Rin was pleased by the new shoes, and immediately put them on, finding them to be an adequate fit.

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Authors Note:

Dialogue is lacking for this entry (and for part 2), as I forgot to organise recording equipment, so nothing to refer to, alas.

#vtm #conclaveconspiracy #tabletop rpg #vampire the masquerade #vtm20 #session 1 #part1

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